Page 74 of Rough Ride

“Come with me to the kitchen.”

Sean didn’t wait for them to agree. He just wandered off. She looked at Eli, who shrugged and followed him. Dillon and she did the same.

“Tell me about these connections we found,” Eli said.

Sean spit out some blood in the sink as he dabbed at the cut on his lip. “What connections are you talking about?”

“You seem to have some very dangerous men you consort with. Did your stepfather put you up to it?”

“Sam? What the fuck are you talking about? I thought you were talking about Crysta.”

He glanced at Crysta, who rolled her eyes.

“Do you really think they would show up here to talk to you about that?”

“Dillon might not, but I would, love,” Eli said quietly. “Just thought you would know he’d be in worse shape.”

She gave him a nasty look and looked back at Sean. “We’re talking about that cow mutilation and the shots.”

“What?” He shook his head.

“We had a cow mutilated. Yesterday, someone took shots at Jerry and me.”

He looked from Eli to Dillon, then back to Eli. “Yeah, I had nothing to do with that. I just got back.”

“Try again, Kaheaku,” Dillon said. “You haven’t used your passport and you weren’t on any plane.”

He studied the other two men, and again, she was struck by the similarities among them. Not just Eli and Sean, but there something about all three of them that screamed specialized training. It was military or federal law enforcement. The aura of authority dripped off all three of them.

“Fuck me,” Sean muttered as he turned to rinse the rag off.

“You bloody did fuck yourself up. Why would you kiss up to that old man after the way he threw you out?”

He sighed. It sounded like a strange mixture of sadness and frustration. “I didn’t kiss up to Sam. I was out of the country on a job.”

“What?” Dillon asked.

“I got a contract for some work in Indonesia. I’ve been gone since the day after I met Crysta at the grocery store.”

Eli glanced at Dillon, who shook his head. “You have not been out of the country.”

“You better talk to your contacts again, Dillon. And when you do, talk to Homeland Security. They can tell you all about me.”

“I don’t have those contacts, and you bloody will tell me just what the fuck you are talking about,” Eli demanded.

Sean’s expression turned even more remote. Apparently, he wasn’t going to be talking any time soon.

“Sean,” Crysta said. “We’ve had a bad couple of weeks here. And what these two are not telling you is that we seem to be under attack on the ranch.”

He frowned at Crysta even as his expression softened. She noticed Eli flexing his hands. He was ready to attack Sean for just looking at her. This was not a good situation, and it would prove to be counterproductive if she didn’t get Sean to answer their question as fast as possible.

“Under attack?” he asked.

“First, you said you left, but Eli and I were on Oahu. We saw you at Rough ‘n Ready.”

For a second, he looked like he would deny it but then he nodded. “Yeah, I stopped at Rough ‘n Ready that night. Then I headed out. Tell me what’s going on.”

Eli stepped up, but Crysta answered.

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